7.4

This is a handheld tactical shooting game with great graphics and excellently produced audio. The game is tightly focused with satisfying shooting action and I can genuinely say I found the game quite challenging: you certainly need to concentrate and keep your wits about you. However the game has its limits. The single player is too short for such a thrilling game and it does not have online play. The story is also painfully short. In this game it’s all about the shooting. There is a lot of it and it is intense, with lots and lots of nasty enemies, which do not die easily, to contend with. If a co-op play and a multiplayer component were thrown in, this would make a much improved package and game. Perhaps that will come later.

This game takes place in a futuristic culture where the humans have colonized all the stars. In The Killzone universe there is a militant subclass which sets itself apart from the mainstream society to form its own government. All this is happening on another planet called Helgan and, as time goes by, this breakaway group of people change from humans into some other, rather unpleasant creatures known as Helghast and it is those newly evolved creatures with whom you do battle, your duty being to prevent an invasion of another planet. Your part is that of a human soldier who is called Templar and who takes on a mission to bring down and destroy these enemies.

In Killzone Liberation it takes a very short time to set up the objective for every mission in the game. For the most part of the game, however, the focus is not based on the storytelling but rather on the mission of Liberation itself. You begin each level with a specific type of gun. When you start you are using a not very useful weapon but as you progress through the game you will unlock more powerful starting guns and also a basic mission objective or two. As you go on, Helghast fighters come in all forms, from groupings of grunt soldiers to rocket-launcher-wielding baddies, and killing them can be very challenging at times. Shooting is handled very well in Liberation as you will find out.

The single player campaign is quite short and devoid of a storyline, and the multiplayer suffers from lack of infrastructure. The tough enemies create some intense battles of the sort you will find in many PSP battles, so nothing new there. The difficulty of the game might put off players especially if they are not used to playing such shooter games. The fact that the game is also quite brief is also a point against it, but, all in all I found the game an enjoyable one, enjoyable enough to recommend that you try it.